School of Education
Understanding Educational Research
How to develop a researcher's habits to improve your understanding of educational research.
A stack of three books
Enroll NowSample Course
$24.993 LessonsWorkshop
Overview

Does research often sound intensive and time-consuming to you? This course aims to give you simple and practical approaches to researching educational topics. Following some practical tips and strategies, you'll discover how to confidently make decisions for your classroom, family, team, youth groups, or simply for your own personal application.

What You Earn
Topics
What People Are Saying

I enjoyed the class. It is a topic that can be used professionally or personally. I am constantly researching even though I don't always label it that way. I have 3 children and am constantly reading articles related to their health, nutrition, spiritual formation, and education. If I do not learn to be discerning about what I am reading, I can be blown around by every opinion piece that is published. I also perform end of grade standardized testing for homeschoolers. There are so many parents and educators that have information on student ability, performance, motivation that I want to be able to decipher what is new and trendy or what worked for one family versus what is reliable. (Katherine S.)

Instructor
Katie Harper
School of Education

Katie Harper works as an Instructional Designer in Biola’s Digital Learning and Program Development Department and is also an M.S. student at Biola’s School of Education. Prior to working in online education, Katie was a primary school teacher for five years.  Her passion for educational research started when she noticed that as a first-year teacher, she was overwhelmed by competing ideologies among professional development, curricula, district resources, and parent suggestions. This led Katie to seek a Master’s degree to help her to make better-informed decisions amid the noise in educational research. When Katie isn’t busy with school and work, she and her husband love to take their dog, Toaster, on outdoor adventures.

For more than 100 years, Biola University has been equipping Christian men and women to impact the world for the Lord Jesus Christ through biblically-centered education. The School of Education, established in 2007, exists to train those who desire to make an impact as educators in classrooms, administration buildings, home schools, the mission field and beyond.

Learn more about Biola's School of Education Programs

Syllabus

Welcome to the first lesson in Understanding...
Overview
Course Introduction
Video
Lesson 1 - Quiz
Quiz
What is your Why?
Video
A Conversation with Dr. Denise Reid
Video
Pseudoscience
Video
Intro to Learning Myths
Video
Power Posing
Video
Why does this matter?
Reflection
Recommended Resources
Resource
Workbook
Resource
What are the key habits that researchers...
Overview
How do you Research?
Reflection
Developing Habits
Video
A Conversation with Dr. Christie Curtis
Video
Habits of Researchers
Video
Searching for Academic Sources
Video
Dissecting Academic Sources
Video
Dissecting Academic Sources Example Part 1 of 2
Video
Dissecting Academic Sources Example Part 2 of 2
Video
Selecting and Dissecting Your Article
Reading
Recommended Resources
Resource
Learning how to apply effective research habits...
Overview
What is Best?
Video
A Conversation with Dr. Carolina Serna
Video
Building Confidence in Your Research
Video
How Do You Respond?
Reflection
Recommended Resources
Resource
Course Evaluation
Resource

Course FAQ

Each lesson is designed to take approximately 1-2 hours, depending on how deeply you engage the reflection questions. Since this is a self-paced course, the time it will take you to complete it will depend on the speed with which you want to progress through the course.

No. The course contains everything you need to successfully complete the course. There are resources recommended at the end of the course that you are free to purchase if you wish to pursue further study on the course topic.

Since this course is designed as a completely self-paced experience, you will not have any interaction with the professor during the course.